Tag: Uncle Wylie

Tuckered vs. Knackered

Dr. J.D. WilkinsLeave a comment

Daily Post: Knackered

knackered

My uncle Wylie had two pet “sayin’s” for when he was tired.  He’d say, “I feel like I been rode hard and put up wet.”  Or he’d say, “I’m plumb knackered.”  Now as a kid, I thought this was funny, but only because I didn’t know what knackered meant.  Turns out it means the same thing my momma would say, “I’m plumb tuckered out.”  Basically this is the word version of the war for independence.  “Knackered” is the British version, “tuckered” is the North American version of the same concept:  being just too tired to move, or exhausted.

You ever have days like that?  I still do.  I used to get up early and start buzzing around, drinking that morning brew to get the juices flowing and the synapsis firing.  After getting prepped with fuel, washed with soap, and driving through the war zone that is commuter travel, I’d work more hours than I care to think.  I’d wonder as I got back in my worn out auto, if I had the strength and resolve to actually make it back through the jungle to my home, where a hot meal and warm bed waited for me.  I’d often look like the kid in this picture; just plumb knackered.  Then things changed and my commute was about 30 yards from my bedroom to my office, and at the end of some days, I’d still look like the kid in the picture.  Now things have changed again, and I’m semi-retired, and yep, you guessed it, I still look like the kid in the picture.  It happens.

The kid in the picture is doing exactly what the Creator designed our bodies to do, when they’ve played hard or worked hard, at the end of the day, we need sleep.  It’s part of the mystery that is the human body.  According to the National Sleep Foundation, here’s a list of how much sleep is recommended for each age group:

  • Newborns (0-3 months): Sleep range narrowed to 14-17 hours each day (previously it was 12-18)
  • Infants (4-11 months): Sleep range widened two hours to 12-15 hours (previously it was 14-15)
  • Toddlers (1-2 years): Sleep range widened by one hour to 11-14 hours (previously it was 12-14)
  • Preschoolers (3-5): Sleep range widened by one hour to 10-13 hours (previously it was 11-13)
  • School age children (6-13): Sleep range widened by one hour to 9-11 hours (previously it was 10-11)
  • Teenagers (14-17): Sleep range widened by one hour to 8-10 hours (previously it was 8.5-9.5)
  • Younger adults (18-25): Sleep range is 7-9 hours (new age category)
  • Adults (26-64): Sleep range did not change and remains 7-9 hours
  • Older adults (65+): Sleep range is 7-8 hours (new age category)

I guess I’m grateful some foundation took the time to research all this, and give us this valuable information, but my thought is, that we are born with this knowledge, because it’s programmed into our DNA.  Our “circadian rhythm,” the natural sleep/wake cycle, God Himself programmed into us, with His own breath of life:

Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Some will argue, there’s nothing in the Bible about sleep cycles, or Adam and Eve sleeping in the garden!  Well, how about that, you’re right.  However, there is a great deal of sleeping going on in the Bible, and it points to God’s design.  I’ll give you just one verse here, then you go get your Bible and check out all the others.  David’s morning prayer, declaring his trust in God, includes this statement:

Psalm 3:5
I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me.

David became knackered with being chased by his son Absalom, and “tired to the bone,” he stopped to get some sleep.  He trusted God to protect him during this sleep, and give him the strength to do it all again the next day.  We’re wired this way.  And sleep works this way, when we put our trust in God.

Are you knackered?  Maybe what you need is a good night’s sleep.

 

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Expedient

Dr. J.D. WilkinsLeave a comment

Timely

three crosses

The key to success is to be in “the right place at the right time.”  History has shown this adage is true more often than not.  This trite phrase is second only to “it’s not what you know, but who you know that counts.”  It seems to me that my uncle Wylie related to each of these quotes by saying “Why is it I’m always a day late, and a dollar short?”  Timeliness is a universal principle regarding opportunities won or lost.

The week of Passover was about winning the war.  In ages, eras, and eons past, the great battle for sovereignty between Satan and the Creator was waged in the heavenly realm, before the earth and all of creation ever existed.  Satan wanted the power; wanted to be God.  Scripture declares he was one of the mightiest angels God ever created, but he was not God.  Satan’s pride and refusal to submit to God’s authority resulted in his being cast out of heaven to inhabit the earth along with God’s lesser creatures.  The battle continued on earth, with the fight for human souls.  Sin entered the world because Satan wanted to rob God of His glory by causing God’s highest earthly creation to rebel against God too.

The history of the Old Testament is about how these battles were fought through the Hebrew nation; and the promise that one day, a Messiah would win the final battle dealing with Sin.  The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us the story of Jesus’ life, the Messiah.  It was a life which served as the final battle ground regarding Sovereignty and Authority, and just who will have the final victory to be called God.  The battle plan was simple:  in order for Sin to be forgiven, a sacrifice must be made.  A debt must be paid.

As far as the Jewish leaders were concerned, the timely death of Jesus was the only solution allowing for them to remain in power over the people.  Jesus had grown too influential among the masses.  Jesus was arrested, taken to Annas, then to Caiaphas.  The Apostle John gives this telling insight into the mind and thoughts of the former high priest.

John 18:14
Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people.

So, manipulating Pilate, Herod, and the Roman state, these Scribes and Pharisees were in the right place, at the right time, with the right claims of “crimes against the state.” They were successful at ending the life of Jesus, because they said “He claimed to be a king!”  It was timely.  It was successful.  So they thought.  God seemed to have other plans.  In hindsight, they probably wished they’d listened closer, had keener insight into what God was busy doing.  We have this same view, (hindsight through the written Word of God), to help us understand the significance of the death of Jesus.

Romans 5:6-8
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

At exactly the right time, pre-ordained by the Creator Himself, Jesus carried His own cross to the place of the Skull, and was crucified.  This action was part one of the final battle plan to win the war for Sovereignty, once and for all.  It was done out of LOVE.  It was done because God’s sovereign desire is that everyone come to know Him, have a personal relationship with Him, then come to live with Him eternally.  Satan would have destroyed this plan if he could.  But God’s timely presence, His providential care, demonstrated with absolute clarity, the lengths to which He would go to save those who would believe.

Perhaps its timely that you’re reading this article.  Perhaps today is your day to believe, and become part of the family of God.

Chillax already!

Dr. J.D. WilkinsLeave a comment

via Nervous

brain gears

What makes you nervous?  Not having a plan?  Not confident of your plan?  Constantly thinking about what other people think about your plan?  Worrying that they won’t appreciate or go along with your plan?

Or maybe you’re just the high-strung, anxious, excitable type, jumping at loud noises, and screaming when someone sneaks up on you.  My uncle Wylie used to call someone like this a “nervous Nellie.”  Being a little skittish or neurotic isn’t a bad thing, it could be caused by any number of things.  Getting worked up and overwrought about things we can control is one thing, but getting stressed out and agitated about things beyond our control… well, at that point in order to “chillax,” a person needs a strong faith.

I’m not talking about faith in karma, or some existential or pollyanna type faith.  I’m talking about a foundational belief system based in evidence and experience, to which a person turns when life around them seems to be falling apart.  When the unthinkable happens and the unimaginable results.  What then?  What kind of faith handles this part of life, helping us not fall apart at the seams of our being?

Hebrews 11:1-3
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  For by it the men of old gained approval.  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Faith is not just a girl’s name.  Faith is not just some ethereal ideal, or sophomoric whim.  Faith is choosing to believe that the world we live in was prepared for us by the Creator, who then instituted life in all forms, including ours.  The Bible says this is what the “ancients” believed when they looked up into the night sky, blazing with a million tiny lights.  The “ancients” believed the Creator formed all the plants and the animals, and ultimately created human life.  The “ancients” believed that this Creator of all things didn’t just create and then abandon His creation to fend for themselves in a hostile environment.  Rather, they believed that the Creator, once finished with the creative process, went about the business of revealing Himself to the human creature in ways that constituted a relationship.

In this personal relationship, the primary revelation God wanted humans to hear was, “do not be afraid.”  While God spoke to and through these “ancients” to reveal Himself, more recently in the “near” ancient time, God has revealed Himself through His Son.

Hebrews 1:1-4
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

In fact, He has spoken of how all things will ultimately be wrapped up and put right when Jesus, the Son of God, returns a second time.  You can read and study all about that if you click here.

For the nervous Nellie, for the strung-out, the over-excited, the skittish or neurotic, who believe the world is on a mission to self-destruct, and there is no hope…  God says, “Chillax, I got this.”

 

 

Jello

Dr. J.D. Wilkins1 Comment

via Jiggle

My uncle Wylie was a funny man.  My memories of him are somewhat questionable according to my sisters.  They don’t remember him quite the way I do.  I may have mentioned him in previous articles.  One of my favorite memories is being at his house when the phone would ring, he would grab it up, and say, “ummm… Jello!”  Cracked me up every time.  I think he did it just for me.

jello
(Jello TV ad circa 1960)

Jello was a staple at the Wilkins home.  My favorite of course was either purple or green. Grapes and Limes.  I don’t know why, it just was.  I liked how the Jello squished in my mouth.  Mom said Jello was good for you all the time.  When my own kids were growing up their mother would make Jello Jigglers, because that was the “in” thing at the time. Jigglers are easy to make, just use your favorite cutter and make Jello shapes the kids love to eat. My favorite part was eating the left overs from the cutouts, the shapeless throw aways, the fringes and edges.

Sometimes it seems to me we have a “Jello Jiggler” approach to studying the Bible.  People love to cut out Psalm 23, Luke 2, Jeremiah 29, John 3, and Romans 8, shake them up and watch them wiggle and waggle as our favorites to study and digest.  Sure there are lots of favorite stories, pet stories, pastors love to teach about.  But what about the cutouts?  What about all the left overs that no one really wants to eat?  Are they too dry?  Do they not wiggle enough?  They don’t have that delightful little jiggle? Are they so hard to understand that most of God’s children just avoid them altogether?

Yes.  And there is one book of the Bible in particular that draws very little attention, in fact is avoided most of the time… the Book of Revelation.  If God didn’t want us to read it, study it, learn from it, or eat it like Jello, then why is it there?  There are letters to the church in this book, dictated personally from Jesus.  There are miracles and wonders describing the glory and majesty of God.  There are promises and explanations of why we are here, our very existence is explained in detail, and purpose!  No other Book in the Bible gives us the glimpse of our future home, that is found in Revelation.  The promise of Christ’s return is described and guaranteed in the Book of Revelation!  There is plenty of shake, joggle, waggle, wiggle, fidget, squirm, quiver, tremble, and jiggle in Revelation.

Is it always easy to understand?  Nope.  Is it worth trying?  Yep.  I offer you the opportunity to go on a journey few have been willing to make.  Travel with me into the rough edged, cutout, loose ends of the Jello in the Bible … that is Revelation.  It is a tasty treat!